"Well, they whined enough about it, I guess," Gordon, Chevrolet's No. 1 driver, said of the Ford teams, who'd been lobbying all weekend for a change to make them more competitive in Sunday's Daytona 500.

"People have been sandbagging out there all week," Spencer said, firing a shot at the Ford fleet he was a part of last year before moving to Chip Ganassi's powerful Dodge team. "NASCAR really jumped the gun on the situation unless they help Dodge."

"I don't think it's any big deal, you know?" Earnhardt said.

"I've got my Chevrolet running pretty fast, so they can take whatever they want."

After only two Fords were among the 20 fastest cars in Saturday's time trials, and then Dale Jarrett drove the highest-finishing Taurus (sixth) in Sunday's Bud Shootout, NASCAR President Mike Helton said the sanctioning body's technical officials had seen enough to give the Fords the break.

NASCAR had already given Ford one 1/4-inch reduction following January testing.

So now Fords will carry spoilers that are only 6 inches high compared to 61/4 inches for Chevrolet and a whopping 61/2 for Pontiacs and Dodges.

That might not sound like much, but it makes a big difference in aerodynamic drag created by the spoilers as the cars hurtle along the straightaways of 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway.

Now the Fords "will carry a lot more straightaway speed because they have a lot less drag on the car," Spencer predicted.

"We certainly got some help," said Ford driver Jeff Burton. "Whether it will be enough or not, I don't know."

Said Burton's team owner, engineer Jack Roush: "Without a rules change, a Ford has no chance to be competitive to win the race."

Less drag down the straights, though, also means less aerodynamic downforce through the turns. And that means more precarious steering.

"Those Fords were loose yesterday," said Gordon. "I can't wait to see how loose they are now without that quarter-inch on their spoilers."

Gordon noted, "When we wanted some changes for the Monte Carlo here a few years back [in 2000], they didn't make any. Now we're wondering why they're doing something for them when they wouldn't do anything for us.

"So maybe they've learned from their mistakes and they're trying to make it right. That's fine."